Thank you again for the mass of reviews!!! I don't usually point out specific reviewers, but I do want to thank Avalon for correcting me on my dates.  I do love my writing to be correct, and I appreciate it a lot ^_^....I'll change the dates eventually, but for right now, on with the next chapter!!!

A/N:  Sorry for all the spelling mistakes... I tend to type really fast when I have a writing spurt, and I'm too lazy to fix them.... ^_^

Time After Time

Fic by MuseQ

Chaper 5- The Old and the New

*****

Date- January 29, 1997

Remus woke up, trying to remember the last few minutes.  He was... outside of Hogwarts... His mind was working very slowly.  That is, until he saw what he was holding.

His eyes followed his own arms which were wrapped protectively around a... girl?

He flushed deeply, watching her chest rise slowly up and down and her hands tremble slightly from a significant loss of blood....

Now panic was through him.  Her temple was bleeding, her lip bruised... and, God forbid, her shoulder was slashed...

"No… "  Remus breathed hard.  'Did... I do this?!'

But he too was scratched, his robes torn... what happened...?

A strained yell came from the front steps, and he watched as McGonagall and James ran down to them.

McGonagall helped Remus up while staring at him wildly.  "What were you doing, Remus?"

"Exactly what I'd like to know!"  Harry spoke, bewildered at the site before him.  But Remus was looking at him with the utmost rage.

"What the hell were you thinking, you bastard!"  Remus pulled out of McGonagall's grip, which wasn't hard being that she was in shock at his foul language around the students.

He strode up to Harry and shouted in his face. "So, you decided to follow me, eh?  See my reaction?  And where is dear Padfoot hiding?  No question he was in on this prank!"

Harry stared at him, not knowing what to say. "P-professor?  Are you ill?"

Remus froze.  He looked at McGonagall, levitating the girl's limp body while keeping her distance, and back to James, his green eyes full of confusement. 

"My God..."

"I don't know what's gone into you Remus, but would you please explain what just happened?"  McGonagall stared him down, which made her feel odd.  He looked... different somehow, perhaps he was fiddling with youth potions... "All I saw from my window was you two plummet from the tree and roll down near the lake after Harry came to fetch me."

"Harry..."  Remus thought aloud and looked Harry up and down.  "Are you somehow related to James Potter?"

McGonagall and Harry gaped at him.

"Oh my Goodness..."  McGonagall spat.  "He's got amnesia!"

"What? No I don't!"

"Remus, let's take you to the hospital wing.  Poppy can give you a good elixir for your head- "

"So, is this the new student?"  Said a pleasant voice.  Professor Lupin arrived at the scene.  Remus stared at him for a second...

Thud.

"Two for Poppy, I think."  Said Lupin.

*

"Minerva, please, calm down!"  Dumledore's voice was raised in a hopeless effort.

"How could you not tell me?!"  Her voice was thick with venom.  She had been pacing in his office for the last fifteen minutes, shock and rage formed in her every move.  Lupin was sitting quietly in a corner with his arms crossed, waiting for Minerva's blow.

"And *you*!"  She glared at Lupin not a second too soon.  "Let me sort this out: twenty years ago you used your time-turner, of which was illegal and I didn't recommend in the first place, to travel *here*?  AND I WASN'T  TOLD ABOUT IT?!"

"Minerva, the problem was solved eventually and so I had no reason to tell you."

McGonangall mouthed wordlessly at him, her face a reddening around her thin lips.

"And besides, It wasn't my doing," Lupin stated, "I was tricked."

"And that makes everything peachy, doesn't it?" said McGonagall, regaining her voice.  "What about the Remus in the hospital wing?  What are we going to do with him?"

Dumbledore stood up.  "The spell that was used to activate the time-turner is rare nowadays.  Until we find it, he'll need one of the house's private rooms to stay in, I would prefer yours, if you don't mind terribly-"

"You can't be serious...!"

"Eventually you'll allow it, Minerva," began Lupin casually, grinning, "I remember you doing so."

She scowled at him also, and relaxed her stance in defeat. With a menacing look at Dumbledore, she stomped out of the room. 

*

"This is impossible."  He had thought for the thousndth time in his cozy bed in the hospital wing, and he glanced at the girl lying next to him, which he found himself doing quite frequently.  He remembered when she touched him, held his hand... how he hoped to God she didn't notice his burning cheeks from atop the dead arm of the tree; he is never around girls hardly at all to actually feel the warmth they vibrantly gave.

 He memory had fully returned: Sirius' witty and dangerous prank, his own remarkable time-travel episode, and falling...

How was he going to get out of this?  Did Sirius realize what he was doing when he cast that spell?  For Remus had some time in the drafty hospital wing to figure out that the only reason he was here was because Sirius had found the spell to alter the time-turner to years at a time- it was the same spell Albus was speaking of when he had first received it from him.

"So… now what do I do?"  thought Remus aloud, staring out the darkening sky.  The moon was waxing.  He had two weeks left.

"...Mmm...you could start by closing the window..."  Remus jumped.  The girl had apparently awoke, and was pulling the blankets closer to her body.

"Oh, um...ok..."  He got up and moved over to the ajar window above her head and pulled it shut.

She smiled up at him.  "Thanks, professor."

"What did you call me?"

She laughed.  "Sorry, *Remus*,  I forgot were not in class right now."  She sat up and swayed in her spot, holding her temple.

"Careful-"  Remus caught her as she fell forward towards him.  "You lost a lot of blood back there."  He sat on the bed facing her.  "I really want to say I know you, but I've never seen you before.  How do you know my name?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I wish I could explain, but I think my other self has all the details."

She blinked.  "Remus, what exactly did Madam Pomfrey give you?"

Remus sighed.  She obviously knew nothing of the whole ordeal.  "So you didn't know I was coming?"

"… I was waiting for a student."  She gave him a worried look, "Maybe I should fetch Dumbledore.." 

As if on cue McGonagall strode in swinging thin clenched hands at her side.

"Well, Lupin, you should know I am very disapproving of this situation" her lips tightened with each syllable, "but until you can get back, I… agreed to get you a room in Gryffindor tower, which is only right I suppose-"

"Wait...!"  Both he and McGonagall looked around at a frustrated Hermione.  "What do you mean 'get him a room'?"

McGonagall rounded on Remus. "You didn't tell her?"

"I was about to!"  He said earnestly. "But your here, so I guess you can tell her.  And why is she calling me professor?"

"That is because it is who you are this point in time."  They turned to watch Lupin walk swiftly in the room.  "Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and your quite good at it too."  He smiled at him.

Remus heard a faint sigh behind him as the girl fainted into her pillow.

*****

the cow says moo

as you tickle its poo

~~MuseQ